Calvin Coolidge

The business of America is business and the chief ideal of the American people is idealism.

— Calvin Coolidge

The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.

— Calvin Coolidge

The business of the country is business.

— Calvin Coolidge

The government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.

— Calvin Coolidge

When people are bewildered they tend to become credulous.

— Calvin Coolidge

I have found it advisable not to give too much heed to what people say when I am trying to accomplish something of consequence. Invariably they proclaim it can't be done. I deem that the very best time to make the effort.

— Calvin Coolidge

All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.

— Calvin Coolidge

Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion.

— Calvin Coolidge

No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.

— Calvin Coolidge

There is no force so democratic as the force of an ideal.

— Calvin Coolidge

You can't know too much, but you can say too much.

— Calvin Coolidge

I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis on the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.

— Calvin Coolidge

No one every listened themselves out of a job.

— Calvin Coolidge

Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.

— Calvin Coolidge

What we need in appointive positions are men of knowledge and experience with sufficient character to resist temptations.

— Calvin Coolidge

Civilization and profits go hand in hand.

— Calvin Coolidge

Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good.

— Calvin Coolidge

Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing.

— Calvin Coolidge

Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.

— Calvin Coolidge

Men speak of natural rights, but I challenge any one to show where in nature any rights existed or were recognized until there was established for their declaration and protection a duly promulgated body of corresponding laws.

— Calvin Coolidge

Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.

— Calvin Coolidge

No enterprise can exist for itself alone. It ministers to some great need, it performs some great service, not for itself, but for others; or failing therein, it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist.

— Calvin Coolidge

If you don't say anything, you won't be called on to repeat it.

— Calvin Coolidge

Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.

— Calvin Coolidge

No man ever listened himself out of a job.

— Calvin Coolidge

If you see 10 troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that 9 will run into the ditch before they reach you.

— Calvin Coolidge

We do not need more intellectual power, we need more spiritual power. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen.

— Calvin Coolidge

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of face within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.

— Calvin Coolidge

I have never been hurt by what I have not said.

— Calvin Coolidge

When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.

— Calvin Coolidge

It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.

— Calvin Coolidge

One with the law is a majority.

— Calvin Coolidge

It is necessary to have party organization if we are to have effective and efficient government. The only difference between a mob and a trained army is organization, and the only difference between a disorganized country and one that has the advantage of a wise and sound government is fundamentally a question of organization.

— Calvin Coolidge

The two great political parties of the nation have existed for the purpose, each in accordance with its own principles, of undertaking to serve the interests of the whole nation. Their members of the Congress are chosen with that great end in view.

— Calvin Coolidge

After all, the chief business of the American people is business.

— Calvin Coolidge

There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.

— Calvin Coolidge

When a great many people are unable to find work, unemployment results.

— Calvin Coolidge

Do the days work. If it be to protect the rights of the weak, whoever objects, do it. If it be to help a powerful corporation better to serve the people, whatever the opposition, do that. Expect to be called a stand-patter, but dont be a stand-patter. Expect to be called a demagogue, but dont be a demagogue. Dont hesitate to be as revolutionary as science. Dont hesitate to be as reactionary as the multiplication table. Dont expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong. Dont hurry to legislate. Give administration a chance to catch up with legislation.

— Calvin Coolidge

The Constitution is the sole source and guaranty of national freedom.

— Calvin Coolidge

To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.

— Calvin Coolidge

Parties do not maintain themselves. They are maintained by effort. The government is not self-existent. It is maintained by the effort of those who believe in it. The people of America believe in American institutions, the American form of government and the American method of transacting business.

— Calvin Coolidge

The appropriation of public money always is perfectly lovely until some one is asked to pay the bill. If we are to have a billion dollars of navy, half a billion of farm relief, [etc. ] the people will have to furnish more revenue by paying more taxes. It is for them, through their Congress, to decide how far they wish to go.

— Calvin Coolidge

I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical form.

— Calvin Coolidge

Nothing is easier than spending the public money. It does not appear to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody.

— Calvin Coolidge

If there has been any crime, it must be prosecuted. If there has been any property of the United States illegally transferred or leased, it must be recovered. I propose to employ special counsel of high rank drawn from both political parties to bring such actions for the enforcement of the law. Counsel will be instructed to prosecute these cases in the courts so that if there is any guilt it will be punished; if there is any civil liability it will be enforced; if there is any fraud it will be revealed; and if there are any contracts which are illegal they will be canceled. Every law will be enforced. And every right of the people and the Government will be protected.

— Calvin Coolidge

Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

— Calvin Coolidge